Teen to judge: Prison ruins my European trip

A teenager convicted for his role in the robbery and near-death beating of a man with a tree limb scolded a judge after he was sentenced to 3 1/3 to 10 years in prison Friday, claiming he was being persecuted because of his race and that his sentence grounds him from an overseas trip.

“I don’t think that I should be here!” Lukee Forbes, 16, told Judge Stephen Herrick, whom he accused of railroading him. “I was going to be a foreign-exchange (student) … this is not fair.”

Forbes was convicted at trial in March of first-degree assault and robbery of Louis Stelling, 31, of Albany, who suffered nearly fatal brain injuries when he was beaten with a tree limb and robbed as he walked home June 13 from Washington Park.

Forbes, one of three defendants convicted in the attack at Morris and Robin streets, was 15 at the time and classified as a juvenile offender. At age 16, he would have faced up to 25 years in prison.

Forbes told Herrick he planned to visit Europe as an exchange student. He demanded answers from the judge, which prompted Forbes’ own aunt to say, “Stop talking.”